Jordan from Queensland, Australia (2018 Week 3: Tarts)

Baker

Jordan

Location

Queensland, Australia

Baking Challenge

Classic French Tarte Tatin

Give your tarts a name based on the flavors and decoration – and tell us about your recipe.

Citrus Tarte Tatin (with Cheat’s Chai Ice Cream). There are literally hundreds of oranges and lemons growing on my trees at the moment so this seemed a perfect excuse to use some! I added cardamom and ginger to the basic caramel which helped offset the sourness of the lemons and the bitterness of the orange rinds, which I left on to preserve the beautiful shapes. The finished tart needed a little extra sweetness and something cold to go with the hot so I made a very simple (lazy!) chai ice cream by mixing spiced chai latte powder with vanilla ice cream. Surprisingly delicious!

Now that you survived this challenge, what words of wisdom do you have to share?

Make sure you prepare everything beforehand. I almost burnt my caramel several times while trying to cut the pastry, grease another pan because the one I’d chosen wouldn’t fit in the oven, and so forth. You can’t keep stirring and do other things at the same time! Also turn the tarte extremely carefully at the end to prevent the fruit from slipping around as much as possible. (A couple of my lemons got dislodged and made my design unsymmetrical!)

Tell us about how you added a Wisconsin twist.

As an Australian, I had to add my own twist which is why I chose to use homegrown lemons and oranges from the yard as they are in season here. I do associate flavours like cardamom and chai with Wisconsin though, as they remind me of staying with a friend there in the winter time.

How did you do?

Pleasantly satisfied.